The M-Files Investigates Homemade Vaporizers

[oldskoolgrower]

I still prefer my silk screens to make hash the old fashioned way. Bubble is a tiny bit more potent, but good old fashioned kief hash tastes so much better and is worth the effort...but then again I'm old skool

[JustBurn]

OK i must add to this....
I myself have personally made a homemade vaporizer, Easy as hell. works awesome. Like a volcano for $30 if you are resourceful. I'm not poor, I jjust thought it was rediculous to pay 500 bucks for a stupid heat gun in a lamp base.

Items needed:
Heat gun $17 (i was working at an auto parts store at the time)
Vinyl Tubing $3 (was actually free, but whatever)
Metal Funnel $5 (but i stole it ha!)
Turkey Bags(3)$1 (at the dollar dree bitches!)
Bic pen $free (steal one from work if ya don't have one!)

Next i took some 1/2" drive sockets that were the same size as the tip of the heat gun then another that was slightly bigger. I formed the funnel around the tip of the heat gun by pushing the socket into the funnel stretching the metal a little.

Drop a screen in the funnel so that it sits below the indent from the socket.

Next take your vinyl tube and cut it in half. so you have two even sized tubes. not some stupid half tube.420

stick one end of one tube on the funnel tip. if it doesn't fit then hit it with the heat gun until it becomes soft. then it should just slip right on.

take the other section of tube and put the tip into the turkey bag and tape it all up so it seals with the tube being the only outlet.

put ganja in the funnel, connect the tubes using the pen, turn heat gun on low setting for about 10 seconds or when you see vapor. turn off heat gun for 2 secods and then start blasting it on and off and you should see a constant stream of vapor. This part might take a little bit to get good at, but after the third bowl i stopped burning them for good. (tastes like burnt popcorn when you burn it, and it gives you the tear gas cough)

Best part about this vaporizer is that if you're a gearhead like me the shit just looks like tools in the toolbox to most people when its unassembled.... like an oil drain system or something stupid. haha. ohh the funnel gets hot so don't hold it with your hand.

to make a long story longer, the turkey bag inflates just like a volcano bag, you hit it from the tube and its the best tasting vape hit you've ever gotten. super milky and smooth. I was vaping a lot of berkely/oakland club weed in it and.... yeah awesome.

There is a company that sells pyrex glass bowls made to fit heat guns for vaporizing. its like $25 online, i'd buy one but am too much of a hippy to use credit cards.

[Barnkis]

Originally Posted by calp

Nice little article...

Home mades are definetly becoming a lost art though

Not if I can help it.

[Matt Mernagh]

sounds little complicated...it's all about controlling the temperature. consistently and easily. given the patents surround the Volcano Vaporizer i doubt it's just a heat gun. so that's an important point to remember. if the homemade job works that's awesome. however its kind of like comparing a go-kart to a mustang.

[oldskoolgrower]

When I made mine using a car cigarette lighter I used a thermocouple to calibrate the temperature settings on my rheostat. I guarantee you it did just as good a job as any commercial vape on the market. It wasn't quite as pretty but it worked very, very well

[Matt Mernagh]

as the residents in Yongesterdam know im always open to trying ganja and gadgets. i appreciate the time and talents that goes into them. cuz usually im the guy who gophers, packs and yaks. peace!

[Barnkis]

When/If i go to Toronto ill bring some homemades and show you how its done. haha

[McFlyy]

Originally Posted by JustBurn

OK i must add to this....
I myself have personally made a homemade vaporizer, Easy as hell. works awesome. Like a volcano for $30 if you are resourceful. I'm not poor, I jjust thought it was rediculous to pay 500 bucks for a stupid heat gun in a lamp base.

Items needed:
Heat gun $17 (i was working at an auto parts store at the time)
Vinyl Tubing $3 (was actually free, but whatever)
Metal Funnel $5 (but i stole it ha!)
Turkey Bags(3)$1 (at the dollar dree bitches!)
Bic pen $free (steal one from work if ya don't have one!)

Woah dude, if you use a heat gun straight out of the box, it better be a high dollar name brand. Cheap heat guns have cheap heat shielding that gives off some nasty fumes even on the lowest setting, which is still far too hot to avoid burning the bud. If the vapor was pretty milky, you're still just smoking. There are not nearly as many particles being released when properly vaping, thus the vapor should look like a moderate fog at best.
Also, avoid having any plastic in path of airflow.
Granted a bic lighter burns much hotter, the volume of heated air is much less, and it won't be infusing solubized plastics in your smoke. I guarantee it'll taste 100x better if you replace all the plastic with more inert materials.

The heating element can still be usable, it should be (in cheap guns) just a metal coil wrapped around a ceramic cylinder. However, the typical temperature range of a heat gun is 600 - 1200 F, so a heavy resistor (and possibly a voltage regulator) is needed to make sure the temp is just hot enough to do the job. There's really not much wiring involved, and chances are the gun already has some form of regulator.
If all else fails, you can always just buy a small power supply for $50, and then you'll have adjustable control of voltage and current. Most importantly, there's less risk of wiring faults.

Next time you fire the gun up, waft the air blowing out of it. It shouldn't smell any different from the air getting sucked into it.

I'm not trying to criticize, I'm just still amazed by how many people continue to smoke out of plastic.

[ChronicBxR]

Don't know if this was said, but isn't tinfoil bad for you if inhaled?

I could be wrong because the tinfoil isn't getting hot enough to put off bad toxins, but it's still something to consider

[oldskoolgrower]

Originally Posted by ChronicBxR

Don't know if this was said, but isn't tinfoil bad for you if inhaled?

I could be wrong because the tinfoil isn't getting hot enough to put off bad toxins, but it's still something to consider

I wouldn't use it long term but you're correct that you don't get it anywhere near hot enough to vaporize the metal. It's largely an urban legend that it's bad for you.

[McFlyy]

Originally Posted by oldskoolgrower

I wouldn't use it long term but you're correct that you don't get it anywhere near hot enough to vaporize the metal. It's largely an urban legend that it's bad for you.

You're right, and most metals are fine to use but you have to take into consideration impurities and heat capacity. I'm not sure if the oxidative potential of the metal poses an issue or not.

Anything "Food-Grade" will be mostly pure, but you never know what the .01% might be. ...And heating it will make the impurities that much more likely to escape.

The problem I see with tin or aluminum foils is that they are so thin. Butane burns hotter than the melting points of both of the above metals, and foil doesn't have enough thermal resistance as a single sheet. What I've done in the past for foil screens is fold a big piece to 10-20 ply, then hammer it flat and poke a ton of holes in it with a needle. You get good airflow and the multiplied thickness absorbs enough of the heat to keep the screen from charring too easily.

[Matt Mernagh]

check my favorite temperatures. the key to extraction is the best boiling temp for the kind of weed you have.

[thewhitehouse]

Originally Posted by Matt Mernagh

next up i'm going to check in with Chad and learn all about Vapor Poo oil. he's an expert at taking the crap from volcano and making oil out of it. i'll snap some photos while we make it.

have a wonderful day

matt

Now that actually sounds like a useful article.

[JustBurn]

Originally Posted by Matt Mernagh

sounds little complicated...it's all about controlling the temperature. consistently and easily. given the patents surround the Volcano Vaporizer i doubt it's just a heat gun. so that's an important point to remember. if the homemade job works that's awesome. however its kind of like comparing a go-kart to a mustang.

Go to any road race course across the world and I guarantee a 4 stroke shifter kart holds the best time. lets see a foxbody or SN95 do that.... :P
I ride motorcycles and breathe nitromethane the last thing I'm worried about is if some zinc is going to vaporize in my ganja and kill me... lol Anyways, I'm not saying its the BEST vaporizer in the world, it just works LIKE a volcano by inflating a bag with vape and you can hit it when you want but it cost $20 instead of $500.... I don't use it all the time, in fact i barely use it, but you can totally buy a glass bowl to fit the heat gun.

[Matt Mernagh]

im keeping an eye on chad for the next Vapor Poo / Duff making session. hopefully we'll be making some yummy hash oil from volcano vaporizer leftover soon. you can also bake with vapor duff / poo. the leftovers. have a wonderful day M.